How Northern Steel girls soccer team brought home another national title
Northern Steel’s 2011 Blue girls soccer team played a game of “Can you top this?” against itself — and won.
Last year, the squad won the U.S. Club Premier national title, and could have gone for a second straight crown at that level this season. Instead, it moved up a division to the National Premier League. With five victories in Denver earlier this month, Northern Steel returned home as champions once again.
The tournament included 16 teams from around the country. Northern Steel reached the event by winning the Great Lakes Region championship in Canton, Ohio, in early June. Wins over teams from California, Illinois, Tennessee and Minnesota landed it in the final against Culver City FC, which fell 2-1.
“It’s crazy to win back-to-back national titles,” Blair Gerlach, the team’s coach, said. “Moving up was optional. It was ”Let’s see what we can do?’“
Northern Steel included players from seven high schools — Mars, Knoch, Seneca Valley, North Allegheny, Hampton, Deer Lakes and Grove City.
One of this year’s players, Brielle Krepin, is a rising freshman at Mars. She was one of 13 girls to play on both championship teams.
“I definitely noticed a difference in the caliber of play between our opponents last year and this year,” said Krepin, a center back. “The teams were bigger and more physical this time, but we believed if we worked together, we could still win. We looked forward to the opportunity.”
The 2011 Blue team outscored its five opponents in Denver by a combined score of 13-5. It is now unbeaten in its last 59 games, a streak that began last year.
Also bringing home a title for Northern Steel was the organization’s U23+ Women’s Team, which claimed the Ohio Valley Premier League for the second straight year.
In the championship game played in Columbus, Northern Steel was matched against Kings Hammer from Cincinnati, a team that had won all nine of its games in the tournament before falling 3-1. Northern Steel entered the game with a record of 7-0-2.
Many of the players in the league are on college rosters and want to keep playing into the summer break.
“Looking at their record, we were kind of the underdog,” said Sophia Palermo, a rising junior midfielder at Slippery Rock University, of Kings Hammer. “I think that helped us mentally, though. We felt like we had to prove ourselves.”
“I formed the team last year,” said Gerlach. “The cool thing is that there are 22 players for us, but there are 38 others who just want to train with the team, stay fit, and they are part of our practices.”
